THERE CAN BE NO MISTAKING THE OBVIOUS: MINNESOTA WEATHER GETS TO BE UNPREDICTABLE AND @ ONCE FICKLE with each passing day, and the Minnwissippi region wherein Your Correspondent resides is no exception.

As evidence, consider the forecast for these parts, calling for dry and mild conditions today (maxima of around 65 degrees expected) ... only to be followed from tonight with a streak of rain (an especially good chance tomorrow, with maybe a rain/snow mix tomorrow night into Monday morning). The which, no doubt, is precluding the likelihood of yard work with a friend of mine as was discussed yesterday; I called him last evening, and he acknowledges where the ground is still a little wet to have any serious raking done.

And with the new round of wet weather likely in the coming week, expect it to be some while before conditions improve enough to allow raking to start in earnest.

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THE WHICH IS NO DOUBT APROPOS TO WHAT I'M ABOUT TO MENTION:

You've probably seen all manner of banner and "pop-under" adverts, not to mention "spam," promoting supposed "registry cleaners" that would delete "completely and finally" all form of malware programmes, including:

• "keyloggers;"
• "spyware;"
• worms;
• viruses;
• Trojan Horse programmes; and
• malicious code which can be used to turn otherwise harmless PC's into remotely-controlled "zombies" for the sake of "phishing" and suchlike schemes.

The Reality, however, is that they have the exact reverse effect; i.e., they serve only to provide a backdoor for scammers to download, through trick and deception, onto otherwise innocent and harmless PC's such software as only undermines, not improves, computer performance.

Which is nothing less than fraud, trick and deception harming consumers, especially vulnerable and unsophisticated such.

Avoid such "registry cleaners," like the pox. Likewise with various offers of "free" computer games, cursors, avatars and so-called "surveys" as advertise opportunities to win big-big money prizes; these, too, are often back-door ruses to download malware programmes.

And instead, install a reliable anti-viral software programme on your PC, as well as updates to same as they are issued.

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WHAT SOME ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS WOULD SEE AS "CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION," others would see as necessary to avoid the risk of real or imminent abuse and harm:

Texas police and child-welfare agencies raided the compound of the so-called Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a breakaway Mormon sect operating on the fringes of the law, near San Antonio yesterday, rescuing 52 young girls between the ages of six months and 17 years from Sin and Degradation excused as being necessary to achieve salvation--which, in FLDS thought, requires a man to marry three women all expected to be subservient to his will "by whatever means necessary."

(In contrast, the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints renounced polygamy in 1890, the better to speed the accession of Utah into statehood. Two other breakaway Mormon sects, the Community of Christ [f/k/a The Reorganised Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints] and the Church of Christ, Temple Lot, have always renounced polygamous behaviour.)

Eighteen of the young women rescued were placed in State custody, with the remaining 34 placed in foster homes.

But then again, the FLDS' onetime "Prophet, Seer and Revelator," Warren Jeffs, himself awaiting trial in Arizona for the likes of Incest and Indecent Sexual Liberties with a Minor, could issue coded orders from his prison cell asking their followers to move interstate all the more "to avoid attracting further unwanted attention;" a report on CNN suggests that the FLDS may be setting up enclaves in Colorado and South Dakota in haste towards these ends.

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THE ELECTION PICTURE IN ZIMBABWE CAN ONLY START TO GET EVEN MORE CURIOUSER AND CURIOSER with attempts by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to ask the courts for a timely release of Presidential election results thwarted by police goon squads with connexions to majordomo Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF, who still insists on a runoff election for the Presidential position.

Yet MDC leader Morgan Tsvangarai insists that he won the Presidential race fairly and honestly.

Seems there are some in Zimbabwe who can only smell tension, and then some, in the air--especially such involving Extreme Ultraviolence.

Including, perchance, the white Rhodesian Diaspora resident in and around the Pretoria/Johannesburg connurbation in neighbouring South Africa since the collapse of a supposedly "noble and righteous" white-minority regime under Ian Smith in 1980.

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NEWSHOUNDS IS NOTING WHERE "THE O'REILLY FACTOR" NOW HAS AN OCCASIONAL UR-DEPARTMENT under name and stylee of "Dumb and Dumber," whose sole purpose, it seems, is to discredit Democrats and others likely to be viewed as "Secular-Progressives" or otherwise as "destructive elements."

And thanks to NewsHounds, they have made available for your enlightenment (if it could be called so) the first such segment:

And for the sake of "fairness and balance," to paraphrase Fox Prolefeed's rather hackneyed slogan, NewsHounds offers the following specimens of Mr. "No-Spin Zone" acting "Dumb and Dumber" "himself," based on the show's supposed criteriĉ:

"Moyers puts himself up, at our tax expense, as a fair and objective guy. And here he is at the biggest left-loon conference in the world mocking me. He's a charlatan who epitomizes the left-wing media in this country and doesn't even pay his employees' health insurance." Bill O'Reilly, O'Reilly Factor, 3/19/08

"Notorious race-baiting columnists Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post and Mary Mitchell of the Chicago Sun-Times couldn't wait to viciously attack Ms. Ferraro. These people you are looking at right now are the American media at its worst." Bill O'Reilly smearing two black journalists with zero context or detail, O'Reilly Factor,3/13/08

"I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels--that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever--then that's legit. We'll track it down." Bill O'Reilly, The Radio Factor, 2/19/08

"Twenty-eight Democratic senators voted against coerced interrogation of captured terror suspects and warrantless surveillance of overseas phone calls made to suspected terrorist locations. " ... "And in this high-tech world, if U.S. intel cannot zero in on communications immediately, then crucial information will be lost. Everybody knows that." ... "But reasonable people understand that fighting fanatical terror killers requires speed and resolve. So why are these senators so opposed? All of them are liberal thinkers." Bill O'Reilly misreprsenting facts, O'Reilly Factor, 2/14/08

"Media Matters is run by liars and defamers. They are far worse than pinheads." Bill "I don't do personal attacks here, mister" O'Reilly. The Factor, 1/30/08

"The hard left is happy this evening because the economy is wobbling. For years, these people have been wishing economic disaster on America because they despise President Bush. " Bill O'Reilly, TPM The Factor, 1/22/08

"I had no choice but to uphold the Constitution." Bill O'Reilly, smugly, defending his shoving, shouting, and swearing at Obama bodyguard Marvin Nicholson at New Hampshire rally, Talking Points Memo 1/7/08.

"Should You Care About the Iowa Vote? The answer is not really. It's interesting. Some of the candidates will be helped by it, some of the weaker ones will be weeded out, but it's only a very small activist snapshot. It doesn't reflect how the majority of Americans really feel. [snip] All this is interesting, but does it do America any good? The answer is not really." Bill O'Reilly fomenting disinterest in the American electoral process, O'Reilly Factor, 1/3/08

Is it any wonder, then, that Fox Prolefeed should be regarded with suspicion and distrust as a "credible" news source?

And what exactly would prevent cable TV subscribers of the "Secular-Progressive" suasion from asking their cable providers to block Fox Prolefeed in the same stylee that so-called "right-thinking American families" are able to block access to adult-oriented or otherwise "indecent" channels? (Which is available free of charge, know.)